For the past three years, Microsoft’s Xbox business has been laser focused on a singular message of acquisition-is-good-for-expanding-gaming, however, lately the company has been less clear on how it’s going to execute its vision and cause may be due to continued executive shuffling.
According to an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Microsoft Gaming will be saying goodbye to chief marketing officer Jerret West as he departs for the CMO position at Robolox.
West has been involved Xbox’s messaging behind the launch of the Xbox Series console launches and Xbox Game Pass during his second tenure with the company and his departure brings yet another shuffle of executive chairs as the division looks to delegate his priorities.
Following his final day with the Gaming division on June30, 2024, the Xbox team will look to broaden its gaming marketing efforts under vice president of Xbox integrated marketing, Kirsten Ward.
As a result, Games marketing will work alongside the divisions of content and studio headed by Matt Booty with the larger Xbox marketing business that’s being overseen by Chris Lee, will now report to Xbox president Sarah Bond.
Over the past eight months, Microsoft’s Xbox Gaming business has seen several seismic shifts in reporting and accountable priorities as backward compatibility champion Kareem Choudhry abruptly leaving in April, and Sarah Bond and Matt Booty rising up the ladder following the official Activision Blizzard acquisition.
However, getting back to Xbox’s marketing message, it’s been arguably murky as the division finds itself in the middle of console generation cycle, $70B in debt, and attempting to navigate its new business a publisher among its avid customer base.
West’s departure will be felt with him being part of the team that helped buoy the Xbox brand after its collapse during the Xbox One console generation. West has been part of a marketing team responsible for rehabilitating the Xbox brand with quantifiable deliveries for gamers in the form of Xbox Game Pass and the value proposition of subscription-based gaming.
It’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft will attempt to market this new transition to multi-platform game publisher outside of Game Pass, and who will step up as the face of its new marketing efforts going forward.
